As with practically every other high profile shooting case in recent memory, it appears that the suspect was using psychotropic drugs, substances that significantly alter areas of the brain associated with perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, and behavior.

While some mainstream media reports have covered the fact that Jared Loughner was, according to people that knew him, obsessed with dreams and alternate realities, to the point where he was keeping dream logs and may begun to literally believe his dreams to be a form of reality, such reports have yet to make a connection with psychotropics.

George Osler, father of Loughner’s friend, Zach Osler has stated on record that Loughner was experimenting with a particular psychotropic drug.

“The whole thing about the dreaming and the alternate reality, I can see where he can kinda get so absorbed into that, that he’s not actually living in reality,” Osler said in a recent interview with the Associated Press.

“I know that he was experimenting with the drug or herb or whatever it is – Salvia Divinorum – and from what I hear he used it quite frequently.” Osler stated.

A d v e r t i s e m e n t

According to several other readily available reports, several students in Loughner ‘s classes said that he would regularly spontaneously laugh out loud without warning. This is commonly associated with Salvia Divinorum [2]use as the video below highlights:

[3]

The drug, otherwise known as Seer’s Sage, is a dissociative, meaning that it can reduce or block signals to the conscious mind from other parts of the brain. Therefore it is capable of producing hallucinations, sensory deprivation, dissociation, dream-like states and trances.

Following the high profile case of Brett Chidester, a salvia user who committed suicide, the drug was made a Class B misdemeanor in Delaware, however, it is legal in most states in the US, as it is not considered to be addictive.

The drug is derived from a plant native to Mexico and has long been used by shamans to induce visions and alter consciousness.

Opinions are divided on the long term affects of the drug and how dangerous it can be, however, it has been banned by various branches of the US military and some military bases.

In a report in the New York Times[5] today, another of Loughner’s friends, Zane Gutierrez, describes the shooter as being mesmerized with the possible meanings of dreams and their importance.

“Jared felt nothing existed but his subconscious,” Mr. Gutierrez said. “The dream world was what was real to Jared, not the day-to-day of our lives.”

Gutierrez added that Loughner had “used the word hollow to describe how fake the real world was to him.”

“He would ask me constantly, ‘Do you see that blue tree over there?’ He would admit to seeing the sky as orange and the grass as blue… Normal people don’t talk about that stuff.”

“He was a nihilist and loves causing chaos, and that is probably why he did the shooting, along with the fact he was sick in the head,” Gutierrez added.

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Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.net[6], and Prisonplanet.com[7]. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.